News & Events

I graduated with a Social Work degree nearly 20 years ago and worked in Australia, the UK and over the last five years in Hong Kong with the most inspiring of all groups: refugees and asylum seekers. What a rewarding experience I have had.

I work at Justice Centre because I believe that people should not be forced to endure torture, violence or mistreatment purely by virtue of the unfortunate fact that they happened to be born in a particular place at a particular moment in time.

The facts of the Erwiana case make for hard reading: repeated punches and beatings to the head and other parts of her body with items as various as a mop handle, the tube of a vacuum cleaner and coat hangers; deprived of the toilet and forced to wear nappies; stripped, humiliated and made to sleep on the...

There have been more than a few days which I can recall where I have woken up and wished for a day off from work. But then I think - what if I was to be completely deprived of the right to work at all? What if the government took away my freedom to use my skills, earn a living, support myself or contribute to society?

At Justice Centre Hong Kong, one of the things we do is help the most vulnerable refugees prepare their written testimony in support of their claim before the Hong Kong Immigration Department. The testimony contains a detailed narrative of what caused the refugees to flee their country and why they believe it is no longer safe for them to return to that country.

I came back to work this week with a heavy heart; fresh off the plane, leaving behind family, friends, parties and good food that I sorely miss in my home country, Bahrain. Every time I return from home, getting back into the way of life in Hong Kong is always a bit difficult, and I am usually reminded of how scary it was when I first arrived here as an overseas university student, having to learn everything you need to know when you move to a new country.

We've had a very exciting week at Justice Centre, with the final exhibition and auction of the Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize 2014 which was held on Human Rights Day (December 10th). The turnout and enthusiasm for the Prize was overwhelming and inspiring, successfully bringing together members of the public and arts community to ignite creative dialogue on human rights - what a night it was!

Next Wednesday, Human Rights Day, Justice Centre hosts the Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize, our annual event to harness the power of the visual arts to promote awareness, provoke dialogue, inspire action and ultimately, bring about change in the area of human rights.

A domestic worker who moonlights as a photographer and fifteen other artists from seven countries have been shortlisted for the Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize 2014.

Information is power. What we cannot measure, we cannot improve. So for governments to monitor and evaluate policies, it’s crucial that they put solid data systems in place, which are an important tool to hold governments to account for human rights.

“Art… is one of the best weapons that can free us and bring positive change to the world.” So says Kacey Wong, artist and activist in the current “Umbrella Movement” and one of the judges of this year’s Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize - Justice Centre’s annual art event to engage artists and new audiences in human rights.

As Justice Centre's 3-day refugee food challenge - Hungry for Change - comes to an end, guest blogger Joyce Man describes the trials and tribulations of living on HK$40 a day for food.

There are many people in Hong Kong who live in poverty and have little to eat.

Last week Justice Centre Hong Kong launched an exciting new campaign called Hungry for Change. Many people have already signed up to our challenge to eat like a refugee for three days, to raise awareness of what some of Hong Kong’s most vulnerable people go through just to survive in our city of plenty, and to encourage the Hong Kong government to improve the current system.

What would make you run as fast as you can? For many of the refugees we are working with here at Justice Centre, they ran as fast and as long as they could from their torturers, prison guards, murderous extremist militias, rapists, etc. They ran for their lives.

If you have a Facebook account and are breathing, there’s a good chance you have recently been ‘tagged’ to take the Ice Bucket Challenge. The idea of daring someone to dump a bucket of ice water on their head or donate to the US-based ALS Association should they choose NOT take up the challenge, has gone viral and has so far led to the beneficiary charity raising almost their entire year of funding through donations in a matter of weeks.

Last month, a group of refugees from Voices for Protection had a rare opportunity to visit the Legislative Council to meet with LegCo member Fernando Cheung.

Working at Justice Centre as a Young Advocate for four weeks has been an inspiring experience. My name is Terri Ha; I have just turned 17 and am an aspiring law student. I came to Justice Centre on my first day with the perception of it being like any other law internship for a High School student - sitting idly on my thumbs for a month, serving the occasional coffee to a senior member of the Centre, while being given piles of complicated, incomprehensible documents to read through. Boy, was I wrong.

“When I grow up, I want to be a pilot”, he said. We will call him Jason, though that is not his name. It was a sweet and ordinary conversation that most people have with children – except that the ambitious, animated, well-mannered little boy I was talking to is not living the life of most ten year olds.

On 17 July 2014, a group of protection claimants from Voices for Protection, a refugee-led advocacy project by Justice Centre, met with Legislative Council member Dr. Hon. Fernando Cheung to discuss the challenges that they face in their daily lives while they seek protection in Hong Kong. Some of the protection claimants shared their reflections on the discussions and the significance of this meeting

The spirit and tenacity of young people in the face of adversity never ceases to amaze me and motivate me in my work. I am currently being inspired by a campaign emerging from Australia, #twotoomany, which sees students of Woodville High School, Adelaide, mobilise on and offline to put pressure on their government to release their two Vietnamese refugee school friends from detention.

The author Arundhati Roy once said, “There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” Nothing could be truer of refugees in Hong Kong who, because of their lack of rights here and the downright hostility they often face in their daily lives, many times feel fearful to speak up on issues that affect them.

Every year, four young people from Hong Kong and beyond participate in Justice Centre’s Young Advocates’ Programme, to give them insight into the workings of refugee law and human rights advocacy in a real practice setting. Here, Claudia Chu, one of this year’s Young Advocates, reflects on her experience of the programme.

Every year, the US State Department rates countries around the world on progress they have made to combat human trafficking and forced labour, publishing the results in its Trafficking in Persons Report. It is disappointing that Hong Kong was downgraded to Tier 2 in 2009, where it has languished ever since.

The US State Department Trafficking in Person’s Report (TIP), which evaluates the efforts made by governments worldwide to combat human trafficking, has again rated Hong Kong at 'Tier 2'. Hong Kong has held the same rating since 2009.

For one hour yesterday, I was Zaara Schenoude, a 36-year-old factory worker from Syria. My hometown was decimated by the sectarian violence wreaking havoc on my people and I was forced to flee under armed guard and herded with 80 other people to a refugee camp over the border. Apart from my ID card, jewellery and headscarf, I had no belongings, no money and no choice.

Fiona, one of our Clinical Legal Education Programme students, shares how the personal tales of refugees' experiences here made her feel like she did not recognise the place they described, even though she lived in the same city.

Our new report launched today (Wednesday May 21) says the Hong Kong Government is doing the ‘bare minimum’ to protect vulnerable refugees and torture claimants entering their new refugee screening mechanism.

On April 15, an extremist group called Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 girls from their school in northern Nigeria. As the Hong Kong public holiday wound to an end on Tuesday, I joined concerned friends around the world in sharing the Malala Fund’s #BringBackOurGirls banner on Facebook.

On this Labour Day, let’s spare a thought for those unable to work in Hong Kong, - refugees - not because they are ill or unfit, but because they are denied that basic right most of us are entitled to that enables us to provide for ourselves and our families.

“Information is the currency of democracy”, according to Thomas Jefferson, former president of the United States. This is the currency we deal in at Justice Centre Hong Kong

News of the recent UK High Court judgement calling for a review of levels of asylum support in the UK has caused a bit of a stir in the Justice Centre office this week because it hit so close to home.

This is where you can expect to find your weekly view of the world through the eyes of Justice Centre Hong Kong and our guest bloggers.

Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre relaunches as Justice Centre Hong Kong